The Bats

It is bat season at the intern house is Mbarara! For those who have seen "The Birds", recall the early scenes in which people are curiously looking at the sky at the extraordinary number of birds congregating. (For anyone who hasn't seen it, do see this creepy Hitchcock film.) As the bats started coming a couple of weeks ago, this is what it felt like and, of course, having seen the film, we wondered 'what next?'. On the first day, one of my housemates got lost while running and was able to find his way back by the funnel of bats descending into the trees around our compound! We think the bats are fruit bats. There's a park in Zambia where 8 million bats migrate through. I think it is thousands at our house. The bats migrate for feeding during the raining season here and I'm told they'll leave in November (as I stare into the trees, people frequently stop and chat about the bats). We have been reminded in 'fun fact'-type websites that bats are the only flying mammals and their wings are webs between their fingers. These particular bats rely on eyesight and smell as opposed to echo-location and eat fruit and nectar. They cluster in the trees for much of the day but are very active in early morning and at dusk. The chattering about 6:30am is SO loud. I awaken every morning knowing that the bats tend to stay high up but wondering if I remembered to close my windows the night before.